It was supposed to be a panacea against corruption, leakage and a magic wand for financial inclusion. But everywhere you look are people who enrolled, only to fall through the cracks again.
There are many, many instances of this 'dark' approach. Sukanya Verma looks at a few.
'They take each and every election with seriousness.' 'No other political party has that kind of cadre who is strongly aligned with the reason, motto and ideology of their party.'
While the Chhattisgarh police charged the well-known academic with a tribal man's murder, those who know her say it is vendetta at play.
'Who is the government to decide about my religion?' 'We are governed by the Constitution. The Constitution has given me the independence to follow my religion.'
Over 5,000 people lodged in relief camps in Kokrajhar district of Assam are being shifted to make-shift relief camps in their native villages or close to their native villages under the protection of 24x7 fixed security pickets.
'I will not say that the AIMIM is a 'B' team of the BJP. But due to the AIMIM, the BJP benefits for sure'
People, carrying "Not In My Name" placards and forming human chains, protested across Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Goa and Kerala.
'The BJP's tie-ups with the Bodoland People's Front and the Asom Gana Parishad have incurred the wrath of local party leaders and workers ahead of next month's assembly elections.'
She said despite being aware of adverse political consequences, the Congress went ahead and created Telangana, and paid the price in the elections that followed.
Rahul described the Rafale deal as a 'systematic robbery' from the Indian defence forces.
'Isn't it tragic, comic as well as ironic that the people who owe their allegiance to the Constitution of India are declared deshdrohis without an iota of evidence?' 'But this mistake has to be corrected and those who actually and directly fomented the Bhima Koregaon riots and the masterminds behind these people will have to be exposed now.'
National Democratic Front of Bodoland-Songbijit members are seeking refuge from the army and police personnel inside the sprawling Manas National park, a tiger reserve.
'Your failures are not teaching you anything.' 'Your demonetisation failure is not teaching you anything; your GST failure is not teaching you anything; your (revocation of) Article 370 failure is not teaching you anything; your NRC Assam failure is not teaching you.' 'And now you have the CAA!'
'I do not think it's possible for the winners and losers to shake hands and go back to regular business at the end of this.' 'It seems visceral, personal and nasty at a depth we have not plumbed before,' says Aakar Patel.
The centre pays only an insulting Rs 200 per pensioner each month at a tight-fisted 0.04 per cent of GDP, among the lowest in the world. Instead, as illustrated by Jean Drze, one option is for NYAY to provide individual rather than household entitlements to all pensioners of at least Rs 1200 per month.
2019 will be 'a match between the old caste politics and something new which we have not fully understood in UP,' says Aakar Patel.
'The police go into villages, kill villagers, rape women, burn homes, file false cases.' 'They want to empty Bastar of the tribals so that corporate houses can be given a free hand in our land.' 'My father was killed by Naxalites. This is very ironical because the police accuse me of being a Naxalite. If I had been a Naxalite, would I not have been able to prevent my father's death?'
The campaign's main theme song 'Main hi toh Hindustan hoon' has been penned by Javed Akhtar.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has announced that the National Investigation Agency would probe the brutal NDFB (S) attacks on adivasis and its violent aftermath in Assam, which left 78 "poor and innocent" people dead.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday said that the Centre would soon take pragmatic steps to effectively manage the country's borders with Myanmar and Bangladesh to check the movement of militants and arms.
'They are all worried about one thing -- what about tomorrow?'
As the situation went out of control, police first used water cannon and then burst tear gas shells to disperse the unruly crowd.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Saturday
Paresh Barua, the fugitive 'commander-in-chief' of the anti-talks faction of the United Liberation Front of Assam, has been reportedly spotted by Indian security agencies at various locations in China.
Draped in rainbow colours, hundreds of people on Sunday marched in the heart of the national capital for the 9th Queer Pride Parade to show solidarity with the LGBTQ community in making a united call for equality of gender and sexuality and seeking "a life without fear".
Suspended Delhi University Professor G N Saibaba and five others were on Tuesday convicted by a sessions court for their links with the Maoists.
At least 2 persons were killed and over 15 injured including several policemen when police opened fire on a mob of protestors on Wednesday afternoon.
Police arrested 11 people, including the main accused who is a 23-year-old school employee, the headmaster, staff and members of the school management, on Thursday night.
Basic Education Minister Anupama Jaiswal's remarks came even as the ruling party's Dalit, OBC outreach programme faces criticism from opposition Bahujan Samaj Party and some BJP leaders, including MP Udit Raj.
Before the situation in the Naxal-affected areas got out of hand, the Raman Singh government intervened to calm tempers between the police and human rights activists.
While filled with startling insights and questions, and buoyed by terrific performances throughout, Newton suffers from a lack of end-to-end clarity. It is a near-great film but one that for some reason doesn't express itself fully, feels Sreehari Nair.
Over 30 persons belonging to the Adivasi community were killed by the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Sangbijit faction) or NDFB-S militants at four places in Assam ob Tuesday evening.
PM started 'Make in India' but every product in market is Make in China: Rahul
A programme that endeavours to graduate the poorest people could have seminal implications for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government.
Maharashtra police on Tuesday raided the homes of prominent Left-wing activists in several states and arrested at least five of them for suspected Maoist links. Near simultaneous searches were carried out at the residences of prominent Telugu poet Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, activists Vernon Gonzalves and Arun Farreira in Mumbai, trade union activist Sudha Bhardwaj in Faridabad, and civil liberties activist Gautam Navalakha in New Delhi. Subsequently, Rao, Bhardwaj and Farreira were arrested. Although Navalakha was also arrested, the Delhi high court ordered police not to take him out of the national capital at least until Wednesday. According to unconfirmed reports, others whose residences were raided are Susan Abraham, Kranthi Tekula, Father Stan Swamy in Ranchi and Anand Teltumbde in Goa. The raids were carried out as part of a probe into the violence between Dalits and the upper caste Peshwas at Koregaon-Bhima village near Pune after an event called Elgar Parishad, or conclave, on December 31 last year. Here are their brief profiles:
The CPI-M elects a new general secretary to replace Prakash Karat who steps down after three terms.
Amnesty highlighted poll-related violence in the lead up to the May 2014 General Elections, communal clashes and failure of consultation on corporate projects as key concerns.
'The Congress wants to eat the cake, but does not want to share it.'
The Congress hit back saying the PM could not mislead the people by 'lying' as he had been 'exposed'.
